6 Smart Tips for Brand Storytelling in Social Media

Social marketing through brand storytelling is about connection. So, you’re a business owner and you’ve got a killer product. Do people know about you? More so, do people believe in your brand?

On social media people share videos, details about their lives, recipes, and advice on anything from what removes carpet stains to which pediatrician has a good reputation. These snippets are pieces of our respective stories. And therefore, the most successful online marketing occurs through storytelling, which connects your audience and your brand.

Finding out what will motivate your audience to connect (and stay connected) to you requires some forethought and research. It takes more than merely posting frequently about your business.

“Too many brands continue to fail at convincingly placing what they have to offer inside the lives of the people they are trying to reach.” —Mark Di Somma, Branding Strategy Insider

But this is what brand storytelling does. So, how do you place your brand inside people’s lives?

Stories connect to people where other marketing strategies don’t. When your brand gets inside people’s lives, when it triggers positive emotion in them, it compels them to be a part of this positive thing. If they participate in your brand and that is also a positive experience, then you’ve created an environment for loyalty and sharing.

“Let them find themselves in your story, and the need to sell disappears.” –Michael Margolis, Get Storied

6 Tips For Brand Storytelling

1) Set Apart

Your story is what sets you apart from all the other companies like you, or that will become like you. It’s the thing about your company that no one else can emulate. Don’t sell it short.

2) Show and Tell Your Story

Hire someone to help you tell your story and to illuminate the magic in your story that is both unique and universal. No matter how ordinary you think your story is–there is magic there. You just might need help discovering it and showing it off. Bits of your story should be evident in everything: your website, photography, content, your Facebook profile, and every social media profile. (We do this.)

3) Be the story someone shares.

Authenticity is your trump card. Play it.

People share stories that resonate with them. It’s what we do. All day, every day. Post your story and all related things in clever ways. Most importantly, be authentic.

Running your business is no doubt already a full-time job. Don’t feel like you should be the one to post original and creative content consistently to social media. Hire somebody. (Ahem. We do this, too.)

4) Stories Create Loyalty

Are you a Mac guy? Are you a Nike girl? Got to have your Starbucks? When people connect with a brand’s story, they become more understanding, and more forgiving than with a generic brand. They want your brand to be as good as they can imagine. A good story is the beginning of a relationship, and relationships keep consumers coming back. With a relationship you can expect honest feedback. (Just remember return the loyalty to your consumers when there are complaints.)

5) Quit the clichés. Get real (content).

Write real content. Write intriguing content. Don’t settle for anything short of quality information said in a way that hits your target audience’s soft spots.

Don’t fall into the pit of clichés. Despite how right on a cliche may sound, it detracts from content. It sends the message that your brand is generic, uncreative and none of the things that people connect with. People connect with brands that say something–using cliché phrases like “team player” or “think outside the box,” also causes your SEO to suffer.

Consumers see through facades like it’s their job. You’ve got to get real or forget it. And as a business, you can’t afford to forget it when it comes to your social media presence.

6) Be Consistent

In telling your story

In social media presence

In delivering your product/service

The best advertising isn’t advertising. -Ajaz Ahmed, founder, AKQA

A poor social media strategy is to just post and post and post and post. Consumers are savvy, and they resist annoying marketing. Plus, their feelings are increasingly negative toward all the marketing intrusion on social media. You’ve got to be (consistently) present while being creative, authentic and engaging. Show them the solution to their problem in a way that triggers positive emotion and therefore compels them to embrace you (and share!).

This is what brand storytelling does when it is done well.

Do you see the magic in your story? Contact us and we can change your branding story.